Valve Offers Up New Privacy Settings For Steam Gamers

[eydee]

Now we need a 64-bit client. That thing is a show stopper for some people. (me included)

64-bit is like 15 years old. Don't cling onto ancient technology. 128-bit client or riot.

[M@GOid]

Steam allows to make your profile private (even for friends) for a long time now. I and some friends there had to do it because, by some obscure reason, trolls can find yours L4D2 game session and enter to do troll things, even on a "Only Friends" game, if your profile is not private.

Games are a thing that I don't mind some data collection, since is not sensitive information for me, and I understand the complexity of modern games put a toll on people responsible of fixing bugs, especially on the PC platform, since he majority of players are incapable of doing useful and detailed bug reports.

[AnonymousCoward]

This change disable SteamSpy https://twitter.com/Steam_Spy/status/983879694658437120 which was providing Steam sales statistics.

[humbug]

RIP steamspy

[sbolokanov]

Flatpak'ed Steam solves these problems

Solves what? You can run a 32bit Steam in 64-bit only OS?

[pmorph]

..alas, the complexity added increases the probability of a bug leaking stuff directly from the servers

[starshipeleven]

Solves what? You can run a 32bit Steam in 64-bit only OS?

Yes and no, depends from how you look at it.

The 32-bit libs needed by it are placed inside its own bubble, not littering your system. That's what Flatpack does. Bundles stuff with their own dependencies inside of sandboxed environments that don't interact with the OS that much.

[sbolokanov]

Yes and no, depends from how you look at it.

The 32-bit libs needed by it are placed inside its own bubble, not littering your system. That's what Flatpack does. Bundles stuff with their own dependencies inside of sandboxed environments that don't interact with the OS that much.

Yes. That much I know, But how are you gonna run 32bit code in a 64bit-only OS, when system's gcc/glib doesn't have 32bit support at all?

[starshipeleven]

Yes. That much I know, But how are you gonna run 32bit code in a 64bit-only OS, when system's gcc/glib doesn't have 32bit support at all?

How does multiarch work anyway? By installing both 64bit and 32bit glibc or whatever base c library along a basic 32-bit libraries that go with it. The kernel interface does not discriminate, both 64-bit and 32-bit glibc work fine on a 64-bit kernel.

Flatpacks do the same, but throw it in a sandbox. They can bundle everything they need down to the 32-bit c library (glibc usually) in their sandbox/runtime. See here: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/wiki/Multiarch
Well-packaged flatpacks only need a Linux kernel to work as they bring their whole little userspace with them.

I'm half sure that flatpack apps from the official store are actually pulling down a generic 32-bit runtime package/sandbox that so the same stuff can be shared by more than one flatpack application. Other stuff is kept as shared dependencies for the same reason.

[sbolokanov]

How does multiarch work anyway? By installing both 64bit and 32bit glibc or whatever base c library along a basic 32-bit libraries that go with it. The kernel interface does not discriminate, both 64-bit and 32-bit glibc work fine on a 64-bit kernel.

Flatpacks do the same, but throw it in a sandbox. They can bundle everything they need down to the 32-bit c library (glibc usually) in their sandbox/runtime. See here: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/wiki/Multiarch
Well-packaged flatpacks only need a Linux kernel to work as they bring their whole little userspace with them.

I'm half sure that flatpack apps from the official store are actually pulling down a generic 32-bit runtime package/sandbox that so the same stuff can be shared by more than one flatpack application. Other stuff is kept as shared dependencies for the same reason.

The aproach you guys suggest takes into account your willingness to have 32bit libs on your machine from the start. And not to mention adding yet another layer, flatpak, on top of that. To me it would make more sense to make the system multilib and install Steam. And that is what I have done.
But one can't omit complaining having to add x32 stuff or yet-another-layer, just to get your x64 games running.
For me, I have stopped buing games from Steam and started looking into throwing my money elsewhere. Only problem is that their main competitor have the trouble of not being able to attract the big studios. But then again, I'm into books too, gaming is not a must.

Rant off.

Relevant response from Feral here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/8axa70/rise_of_the_tomb_raider_coming_to_linux_this_month/dx49t3m/

If you're wondering who to request GOG releases etc. from, you can certainly put your requests to us and we'll listen. However, GOG isn't viable for us at the moment.